African Church reflects on the possibility of ordaining women as deacons

As the world prepares for the second Session of the Synod on Synodality that comes up in October this year, the Church in Africa is reflecting on the possibility of making the case for access to the diaconate for women in Africa.

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – As the world prepares for the second Session of the Synod on Synodality that comes up in October this year, the Church in Africa is reflecting on the possibility of making the case for access to the diaconate for women in Africa.

As part of a series of synodal conversations, Church leaders and lay Christians on the continent engaged in an online discussion on July 26 to reflect on some of the theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms and pastoral matters, such as polygamy, married deacons and female diaconate.

Prof. Sister Josee Ngalula, the first African woman member of the International Theological Commission and a member of the Synod on Synodality set the ball rolling by laying the context of access to the diaconate for women in the Catholic Church.

Making reference to Church culture, she explained that the primitive Church had permanent deacons, both male and female, but “historical circumstances in the West made the diaconate a temporal mission.”

She said the Second Vatican Council, however, resolved “to restore permanent deacons, but that was only for men.”

That led some theologians and feminists to remind Church leadership that “in the Primitive Church, there were also permanent female deacons.”

She said Pope Paul VI wasn’t quite convinced, and asked for a historical inquiry.

“A commission was set up to carry out an investigation into the primitive Church and it concluded that it was true – there were permanent female deacons in the primitive Church. But that conclusion was shelved,” Ngalula said.

She said when Pope John Paul II came to power, feminists raised the same concerns and again, a commission was set up to ascertain the veracity of the claims.

“The Commission came up with the same conclusion-that there were effectively permanent female deacons in the primitive Church. For the second time, the document was shelved,” she said.

“When Pope Francis began his pontificate, a group of feminists went to Rome and demanded that the conclusions of the commissions put in place by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II be made public. Pope Francis set up yet a third commission that ended up with the same conclusion as the first two,” she told participants at the webinar.

Ngalula said she was hopeful because the pressure to grant women access to the diaconate on a permanent basis is not just coming from women and feminists.

It’s now coming from several Episcopal Conferences, who want the Vatican to continue what the Second Vatican Council started, that is “restore permanent diaconate not only for men, but for women as well.”

“It’s not a question of feminist caprices. It isn’t about power either. It has to do with respecting Church tradition,” the Congolese religious sister said.

She said the need for permanent female deacons is even more pressing for the Church in Africa, where women suffer various forms of abuse.

“When you look at the numerous abuses recorded in the Catholic Church today, the vast majority of the victims are women and Children. It goes without saying that women need to occupy some decision-making spaces in the Church, so that women can take care of women when they suffer abuse. Issues that have to do with the intimacy of women for instance have to be taken care of by women. It’s not normal that men should be doing that because it opens the doors to abuse,” Ngalula said.

Ogbuefi Tony Nnachetta, Grand Knight of St Mulumba and a businessman in Nigeria, said it’s going to be difficult for female deacons to be accepted in Africa’s most populous nation.

“If you go through a roll call of the about 60 Dioceses in Nigeria, I doubt if you can get a ‘yes’ out of two dioceses, not out of bias, but because the people have spent a long time accepting that a man is a priest, a priest is celibate, has no wife; the sisters are only there to assist,” he said.

Father Stan Chu Ilo, a research professor of World Christianity and African Studies at the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University, told Crux that appellations aren’t as important as the work women already do in the Church.

“The female religious are already doing most of the work that deacons are doing,” he said.

“Rather than calling them female deacons, my proposal is to grant female religious ministerial functions under a revised Canon Law like preaching in Church, assisting at the altar, and visiting the sick, and officiating at weddings and administering the sacraments of baptism,” Chu Ilo said.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, archbishop Emeritus of Durban in South Africa suggested that the Church needs deep reflection in identifying where best women can play a more impactful role in society.

“We need to ask ourselves, where is the most essential place where women can have that impact of making the Church to have an impact on society,” he said.

He suggested women could fit into the mold of good marriage counselors that will result in good, strong families essential for strong parishes and a stronger Church.

The question of married deaconate

Participants also reflected on the possibility of ordaining married people into the diaconate in most of Africa, as happens on other continents.

Nigeria’s Ogbuefi Tony Nnachetta was formal: Ordaining married people into the diaconate is a no-go zone, especially in patriarchal Nigeria.

“The first Catholic priests – the missionaries got to Nigeria about 1885 – and one of the defining characteristics of the Catholic Church in over a century is a celibate man being a priest. This long-standing doctrine is so strong that the day you begin to discuss openly about married deaconate, it will be more than a storm,” he said.

He said Nigeria isn’t ready for married deacons, talk less of married priests.

In countries like South Africa however, there are deacons who are married, and Cardinal Napier is a living testament to that.

“I have a brother who is a married deacon, so I can speak from very close experience. He is retired now, but he relieved the priest where he was serving so that the priest could do many other priestly functions, rather than doing stuff like married preparation, et cetera,” he said.